Marysville, the slow way.
Maroondah to Marysville through the Black Spur. Mountain ash, mist, and a long lunch.
Marysville is two hours north-east of Melbourne. The point of the day is not the destination — it's the road that gets you there. The Black Spur is one of the most beautiful stretches of bitumen in the country, and most of us drive it three times in a decade without thinking.
Leave by eight. There's a window of about ninety minutes where the Maroondah Highway is empty and the morning fog hasn't lifted off the trees yet, and that's the window the day is built around. Pack a jacket. Bring a thermos. Don't book lunch — Marysville will sort that out when you get there.
This guide covers the route, three stops worth the detour, and the small considered things that turn a drive into a day. It's the same plan we ran ourselves on the 23rd of May. Photos are from that day.
Start at eight.
Take the long road.
Maroondah Reservoir — first stop.
67 KM FROM CBD
The reservoir was built in 1927 and the dam wall does most of the talking. You park at the top, walk along it, and the whole Yarra Ranges arranges itself below you. It's a ten-minute stop that you can stretch to forty if the weather is right.
The picnic ground beneath the wall is the part most people miss. There's a long table, a small creek, and on a weekday morning it's empty enough to feel like a private garden. Bring the thermos. Don't rush the second coffee.
The Black Spur — through the trees.
HEALESVILLE → NARBETHONG
The Spur is thirty-two kilometres of the Maroondah Highway between Healesville and Narbethong. The trees are Eucalyptus regnans — mountain ash — and they are some of the tallest flowering plants on earth. The road bends through them in the kind of slow curves you wind the windows down for.
It rains here when Melbourne is dry. Drive in second gear in the wet sections; the corners tighten more than they look. Pull over at one of the marked lay-bys. Twice if you can.
The mountain ash
avenue alone is worth it.
Some of the tallest flowering trees on earth, an hour from the GPO. The bikes know it better than the cars do — you'll be overtaken by them and you should let it happen. The point is the trees, not the speed.
Leave by eight. Take the long road.
Alfred Nicholas Gardens — on the way home.
DANDENONG RANGES
The Sherbrooke detour adds forty minutes to the drive back. It's worth them. The gardens belong to a 1929 house that no longer stands; what remains is an English-style sweep of lawns down to a boathouse and lake, with paths of cut stone that hold the rain.
Walk down to the boathouse. Sit on the steps for ten minutes. Walk back up. The fog is a feature, not a problem.
The small stuff that makes the day work.